Serving up WiFi : Why guest WiFi should be at the core of your mobile strategy

Building a mobile strategy will be top of the agenda when the FSI Council’s Association of Restaurateurs meets in London next year to discuss restaurant technology innovation.
By: FSI Council
 
Dec. 11, 2014 - PRLog -- Building a mobile strategy will be top of the agenda when the FSI Council’s Association of Restaurateurs meets in London next year to discuss restaurant technology innovation. However, without a safe and intelligent WiFi infrastructure in place, restaurateurs could be leaving money on the table or worse still, throwing it away with the leftovers.

Restaurateurs have been quick to recognise the benefits that mobile communications and digital marketing can play in filling tables, by providing customers with mobile-friendly web sites and reservation apps. However, many have yet to see the value that providing free WiFi to customers once they have been welcomed in, can deliver. This covers both the impact on the business’s bottom line and the customer’s experience when they are dining.

Critical to the success of any WiFi installation and therefore its impact on your mobile strategy, is its ability to not just serve your business and customers, but also to protect them.

By offering a branded home page to customers, which collects information about them as they log in, you can deliver a highly personalised service to make your customers feel really special. From welcoming them as a returning customer, to sending them tailored text or email messages about special offers, this use of WiFi can ensure that every marketing activity delivers a direct return.

When customers log in to your WiFi using their favourite social media platform, such as Facebook or Twitter, your brand and their great experience can also be instantly shared with millions of friends and followers.

Imagine a busy restaurant with 1,000 customers a month connecting to the Internet via your WiFi. If the average number of Facebook friends is around 200, that means your brand could be posted to a further 200,000 potential customers. That’s nearly 2.4 million views of your brand a year for a single restaurant alone. Multiply that by five restaurants in a chain and over 12 million consumers will see your brand – without costing a penny.

Other ways that using WiFi can make your digital marketing budget go further is by ensuring the information played on your smart TV or digital displays relates directly to the audience in your restaurant. Some WiFi providers will be able to analyse the demographics and location of your customers based on the data collected from their devices and match this to specific promotions such as Happy Hour prices, business news or entertainment channels. By providing directly relevant information on these displays, your customers are more likely to stay with you, and spend with you.

Finally, when it comes to measuring customer satisfaction and providing loyalty programmes, WiFi can be used as an alternative to printed materials to collect customer feedback surveys or deliver loyalty bonuses or promotions, while customers are on your premises. With pressure on businesses to minimise their impact on the environment, as well as to cut costs in their marketing budgets, reducing print production can make a big difference.

This might sound like a contradiction, but public WiFi just means it is available to anyone, without having to supply a network security code. Many customers, however, are worried about the safety of their personal data. If they share their email address, or other personal data, where will it end up? WiFi providers today need to reassure restaurant businesses that their customers’ data is safe and secure.

This can be achieved in two ways. First by providing guests with a mobile security app that they can download when they first log in via the WiFi home page. This allows them to adjust their privacy settings – what information can and can’t be seen or shared – to suit their preferences. Many customers will be happy to share their email with a restaurant they’ve had a great experience with, whereas others will prefer to opt out. Check with your provider first, however, who actually owns this data to begin with.

Secondly when it comes to PCI compliance, using WiFi for your PDQ machine transactions rather than Bluetooth can provide additional levels of security and peace of mind. Because Bluetooth technology is less advanced than WiFi it often struggles to cope with a large number of devices trying to take payments at the same time. This can lead to more card read failures and customers having to wait for their bills to be processed. WiFi therefore ensures that restaurants are safer and fully compliant when taking electronic payments, but also allows them to take payments much quicker and easier, with fewer connection problems. This delivers customers an even better service.

Whatever your mobile strategy looks like, WiFi should be at the centre of providing your customers with a great experience. Selecting a provider that allows you to not only serve customers, but also protect them, is the first step on that journey.

Contact
Food Service Industry Council
***@fsicouncil.org
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Source:FSI Council
Email:***@fsicouncil.org
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Tags:Restaurants, Technology, Food Service, Mobile Wallet, Fsi Council
Industry:Restaurants, Technology
Location:London, Greater - England
Subject:Events
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